WB nabs ‘Shannara’

Studio books fantasy series

Warner Bros. has acquired screen rights to “The Shannara,” the bestselling fantasy book series by Terry Brooks.

Dan Farah, who brought the project to the studio, is negotiating to be involved in a producing capacity through his Farah Films banner. Talks are under way to bring a financier aboard, with Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media among several angling to fund the film.

Brooks is the second biggest-selling living fantasy book writer, after Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

WB has franchise hopes for his 14-book series, which is set 1,000 years in the future, in a world populated by elves, trolls, gnomes and dwarves in a post-apocalyptic Earth. The Shannara family is a half-Elf, half-man clan with magical abilities and warrior skills who must save the world. “The Shannara” has never been optioned for film treatment because the author has avoided it. That was until the fanboy enthusiasm of Farah and co-producer Ryan Colucci wore him down. WB intends to first develop “The Elfstones of Shannara,” the second book in the series.

“The books are packed with adventures and epic battles that will play great on the bigscreen, but what I love most about the series is that it’s set in our world and what could be our future,” said Farah.